What are important things to consider when selecting mean stack developers?

11/8/2017

MEAN stack developers play a pivotal role in any tech startup or large corporation.

Important Things to Consider When Selecting Mean Stack Developers

CWithout a technically proficient developer who works well within a team, your business’ website as well as any software products and services that you offer are built on weak foundation. Buggy code and cracks that can be exposed by malware are only few of the many problems that can emerge. When this happens, your entire business can go offline, which can ultimately lead to loss of customer base, potential sales, and revenue. If you’re in need of filling out a MEAN stack developer position, here’s five important things to consider.

Core Responsibilities

Apparently, you’d want to know what core responsibilities he/she has before you hire MEAN stack developer. MEAN pertains to the mix of JavaScript-based frameworks including Angular, Node, Express, and MongoDB that are used to create web-based applications. This encompasses both the client side and the server side of your application as well as the attached database from which you store and manipulate data.

Another way you can look at it is as a development toolkit wherein small individual parts complement each other to create something bigger. There are many advantages to MEAN stack versus LAMP stack, which is another popular open source web framework that consists of Linux, MySQL, Apache, and Python. For starters, MEAN stack developers need only one language to create a complete application, which is JavaScript. Another is that it renders access to Node’s extensive module library.

Work Experience and Side Projects

Work experience is of course a good indicator that your candidate is capable of doing basic development tasks, such as downloading the right software, setting up terminals and servers, using basic JavaScript functions, and so forth. 1 to 3 years of work experience is the usual requirement that companies look for. If you have the time to wait and vet more candidates, this can be adjusted to 3 to 5 years so as to filter for better candidates.

Side projects are equally important when hiring full stack developers. It shows that a candidate is passionate and curious enough to try out different tools and technologies on their downtime. For instance, you can ask for their Github account, which shows an activity chart. The more projects and repositories they push code into, the more green-shaded boxes you can find on the chart. You can also ask for links of blog sites, websites, plugins, or any other project they’ve worked on in the past.

Ability to Work With Others

While technical proficiency is what gets candidates through employers’ doors, it’s the mobile app developers’ personality and ability to work with others that keeps him/her working there for a long time. Hire someone who gets along with people and has a certain likability factor. Observe how candidate’s answer questions during the interview as well as what he/she says and does outside, such as when waiting in the lobby or meeting with departmental heads.

Communication skills should be tested. Full stack development requires both front-end and back-end systems to be working harmoniously. Mobile app developers will be working with other teams and departments to write a complete software product that they can release to the market. If your stack developer doesn’t have the communication skills to relay important information or listen to other’s input, products can turn out subpar and projects can get delayed.

Final Thoughts

Hiring developers with the technical understanding of related JavaScript technologies can be a long and tedious process. Remember, you’ll be spending a lot of time and cash just to interview these candidates in person. You’ll be taking senior full stack developers away from their desks to sit down with the interviewees. Thus, it makes sense to do each step right so as to acquire the right talent for your company.